Fireflies
by Thelchtereia
Summary: The first time Gakuto saw fireflies he stopped and stared, eyes wide and his little mouth dropped open in awe.
1. Fireflies

The first time Gakuto saw fireflies he stopped and stared, eyes wide and his little mouth dropped open in awe. After a moment he snapped his mouth shut and hurried to catch up with his mom, still not able to tear his eyes away from the little dancing sparks of light that followed them along the path as they walked. "Momma! Momma, what are those?" The little redhead called, grabbing onto his mother's hand and still looking over his shoulder as if afraid the pinpricks of light would disappear if he looked away.

His mother turned, followed Gakuto's gaze and smiled when she saw what her son was watching so intently before calmly replying, "Those are fireflies, Gakuto."

"Oh." There was a long pause as they continued walking, Gakuto stumbling over a small stone as he fought to keep his attention on these fireflies. "Fi-re-flies." Gakuto tested out the word on his tongue slowly and made a face at the unfamiliar feeling. "They look like little spirits."

His mother smiled slowly and gave her son's hand a light squeeze, casting a glance over at the lights beside the road. "They kind of do, don't they?"

Frowning, Gakuto looked back to the path and seemed to be lost in thought for a moment before he looked back out at the fireflies. "Does that mean one of those little lights is grandma?"

There was a falter in his mother's steps, and a pained look came over her face before she managed to smile sadly down at him. "Probably." She kept her answer simple, cryptic, hoping Gakuto wouldn't ask more questions. Another long pause between the two of them, and for a moment she thought he might just let it go.

"Do you think if I said please, they'd give her back?" The question was asked very quietly, and Gakuto tore his attention away from the fireflies to look up at his mother; completely sincere.

It took all of her willpower to smile sadly and hold back her own emotions enough to respond. "I'm afraid not. It's your grandmother's time to be with them. That's just how the world works, Gakuto."

Gakuto frowned, and slowly looked back over his shoulder through another drawn out pause. "Someday, I wanna be a firefly."

"Oh? Why is that?" Confused by Gakuto's whole-hearted and naive acceptance of life, she too turned to look over her shoulder at the entrancing yellow sparks of light.

"Because... I wanna make other people remember too."


	2. Lesson Learned

The sun was beginning to set as Gakuto trudged out into the play yard with the other kids, letting out a sigh as he plopped down on the stairs leading down to the sand pit. His mother was late, again, and they'd thrown him in with the daycare children without a second thought. But it was getting late, and they'd been cooped up inside for so many hours that the staff had decided to let them outside before it got dark.

So Gakuto had headed outside with the rest of them, and plopped down as he watched the little blond-haired boy immediately take off running after a group of fireflies. Frowning, Gakuto grumbled quietly and reminded himself to talk to the boy later about terrorizing the spirits.

When he had finally convinced himself not to get up and chase after the other children, Gakuto watched, completely appalled, as a lanky little dark-haired boy captured one of the small lights in his hands and grinned in triumph. Furious, the redhead jumped up and took off at a run across the courtyard and stopped in front of the other boy.

"Let her go!" He yelled loudly, not caring to spare the boy's ears. But the other boy was staring at him, wide-eyed, wondering what he was going on about.

"What, this?" He asked in a slow accented drawl, bringing up his hands and spreading his fingers a little so that the light shone through.

Gakuto turned his nose up in annoyance at the unfamiliar accent, but didn't back down at all; putting his hands on his hips and yelling up at the taller boy. "Yes, the firefly! Let her go!"

The dark-haired boy blinked at him in confusion, trying to comprehend what had set Gakuto off without much luck. "Why?"

Gakuto rolled his eyes and let out an angry huff, not liking that he had to explain himself. "That's a spirit, dummy! It's mean to hold on to them!"

The other boy slowly raised an eyebrow, clearly thinking Gakuto insane and still holding on to the firefly more out of confusion than defiance. "A spirit?"

"Yes, a spirit. Hasn't someone you loved ever gone away? They turn into fireflies, you know." Gakuto had calmed down to explain, glad to enlighten someone else since the boy seemed genuinely interested and less likely to ignore him.

The boy paused, and then gave a soft snort of amusement before slowly opening his hands and freeing the firefly from his grasp.

Smiling softly, Gakuto watched the firefly emerge and tilted his head back to watch it fly up above their heads and bounce happily between them. Looking back down at the other boy, Gakuto continued to smile and then quickly leaned up on his tiptoes to place a kiss lightly on the other boy's nose. "Thank you." A pause, and suddenly Gakuto remembered his manners. "I'm Gakuto by the way."

The dark-haired boy stared down at him in awe for a moment, completely enraptured by the redhead before him and stumbling over even the simplest words. "I'm Yuushi."

"Nice to meet you."


End file.
